IN A DRY SEASON
Draw a wire fence and a few ragged gums, and add some scattered sheep running away from the train. Then you'll have the bush all along the New South Wales Western line from Bathurst on.
The railway towns consist of a public house and a general store, with a square tank and a schoolhouse on piles in the nearer distance. The tank stands at the end of the school and is not many times smaller than the building itself. It is safe to call the pub 'The Railway Hotel,' and the store 'The Railway Stores,' with an 's.' A couple of patient, ungroomed hacks are probably standing outside the pub, while their masters are inside having a drink―several drinks. Also it's safe to draw a sundowner sitting listlessly on a bench on the verandah, reading The Bulletin.
The Railway Stores seem to exist only in the shadow of the pub, and it is impossible to conceive either as being independent of the other. There is sometimes a small, oblong weatherboard building―unpainted, and generally leaning in one of the eight possible directions, and perhaps with a twist in another―which, from its half-obliterated sign, seems
